Lockhart Films

Sharon Lockhart is internationally recognized for creating conceptual films and photographs that meticulously observe the quiet details of everyday life. On Saturday, April 10, and Saturday, April 17, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present special screenings of two recent feature-length projects: Pine Flat (2005) and Double Tide (2009).

Both screenings are presented in conjunction with the exhibition Sharon Lockhart: Lunch Break, on view at the Kemper Art Museum.

Pine Flat — which will begin at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 10 — offers an intimate yet unsentimental view of the lives of children in the titular California town, a rural community of 300 located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Shot by Lockhart without a camera crew, the film eschews traditional narrative and consists of 12 fixed-camera portraits, each lasting 10 minutes, which show the children engaging in both solitary activities and complex group interactions, all amidst stunning natural settings.

Double Tide — which will begin at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 17 — is Lockhart’s latest project and documents the work of a female clam digger on the mudflats of coastal Maine. It was filmed on the rare occasion when low tide occurs twice in a single day during daylight hours: once at dawn and once at dusk. The result is a deeply meditative portrait of a singular yet relatively unseen form of labor, one defined by the most elemental and unchanging forces of nature.

Preceding each screening at 3 p.m. will be a free seminar titled Contemporary Photography: A Closer Look.

The April 10 seminar will feature Sabine Eckmann, PhD, the William T. Kemper Director and chief curator of the Kemper Art Museum, and Francesca Herndon-Consagra, PhD, senior curator at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. The discussion will explore conceptual practices underlining the work of both Lockhart and Gordon Matta-Clark, whose exhibition Urban Alchemy remains on view at the Pulitzer Foundation through June 5.

The April 17 seminar will feature Anna Warbelow, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences, and Pier Marton, senior lecturer in Film & Media Studies in Arts & Sciences. The discussion will explore the relationship between contemporary photography and poststructuralist film in Lockhart's work.

All events are free and open to the public. Screenings take place in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Seminars take place in Room 103 of the Kemper Art Museum, located adjacent to Steinberg Hall.

Sharon Lockhart: Lunch Break remains on view at the Kemper Art Museum through Monday, April 19. The exhibition consists of both films and photographs made during the course of a year Lockhart spent engaging workers at the Bath Iron Works in Maine. It subsequently will travel to the Colby College Museum of Art in Maine and to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.